Congress must quit squabbling over stimulus
Congress’ inability to pass a COVID-19 relief package while millions of Americans suffer is unacceptable.
A new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California shows the extent of the impact on the state’s low-income residents. Households making less than $40,000 a year are being forced to decide between the most basic needs, including food, rent and their health. Many of those people are essential workers at restaurants and retail stores who routinely put themselves at higher risk due to the coronavirus.
Unemployment numbers continue to soar and growing numbers of small businesses are in danger of permanent closure. The federal government’s inability to offer struggling families some form of assistance stands in contrast to the nation’s economic peers. But despite months of negotiations, lawmakers went home for the week Thursday because they cannot reach agreement on pandemic aid.
The major sticking points remain Republicans’ insistence that any agreement include legal immunity for businesses and Democrats’ demands for state and local government relief.
This is precisely the kind of party polarization that Americans want to see end.
Congress passed a $2.2 trillion stimulus law in March that distributed $1,200 stimulus checks and included additional unemployment benefits at $600 a week through July. President Trump then extended the unemployment benefits for workers at $300 a week. The Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Stimulus Act also included checks of $1,200 for adults and $500 for children in most households, helping families make ends meet.
It wasn’t perfect, but it stabilized the economy and helped millions of families and businesses stay afloat.
The relief package being debated in Congress does not include another round of stimulus checks. It would revive a weekly federal unemployment benefit of $300 a week through April.
As Rep. Ro Khanna, DSanta Clara, pointed out Thursday, any stimulus package should include money for people to get by and support their families.
The PPIC poll reveals that 96% of Californians believe the gap between rich and poor people is getting wider. With good reason. While 84% of those making more than $80,000 have paid sick leave and health insurance, only 59% of workers earning less than $40,000 have sick leave and only 48% receive health coverage.
Across the nation, an estimated 6 to 8 million U.S. residents fell into poverty between the months of June and September.
While other countries are subsidizing employment by paying businesses to keep workers on payroll (Canada, up to 75% of wages; Italy, 80%; France, up to 84%; and Germany, up to 87%, according to Public Citizen), the United States is doing next to nothing while small business and government lay off workers by the thousands.
Congress should acknowledge that the promise of a COVID-19 vaccine needs to be supplemented by another meaningful stimulus package. It’s time to end the squabbling and produce a compromise in the best interests of struggling American families and businesses.